CaixaBank, a retail banking group based in Spain, announced on Thursday it has reached an agreement with IBM Services (NYSE:IBM) to accelerate its “hybrid cloud journey” and increase the bank’s capability to develop innovative, digital-first solutions to enhance client experiences. According to CaixaBank, IBM has been a strategic technology provider for the bank since 2011 and the new agreement will be focused on accelerating innovation and digital transformation, while also strengthening the longtime collaboration between IBM and the bank.
CaixaBank revealed that through the partnership, it will use IBM Cloud Pak for Applications running on Red Hat OpenShift to manage workloads and applications across its overall cloud infrastructure. The banking group explained:
“Working with IBM, the bank will continue applying advanced technologies like AI, and exploring quantum computing and blockchain solutions at their joint innovation center. The companies will co-create new solutions for the banking industry to help quickly process a large number of transactions in an open, secure and scalable environment while delivering improved customer experiences.”
While speaking about the partnership, Gonzalo Gortázar, CaixaBank’s CEO, stated that by strengthening the collaboration with a company that is a global model in innovation for the finance industry, he and his team will accelerate, even further, our digital capabilities to continue developing innovative projects and services. Juan Zufiria, Senior Vice President, Global Technology Services, then added:
“With this collaboration, we are laying the foundation to build a model, not just for CaixaBank and its millions of customers, but also for the future of the industry. The open cloud environment will allow the bank to accelerate its innovation and offer a more agile way to bring new digital services to its customers with added flexibility and security.”